Source · Select Committees · Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee
Recommendation 10
10
Acknowledged
Require local authorities to report quarterly on out-of-area placements and publish H-CLIC data.
Recommendation
The Government must improve the quality of data on local authorities’ use of out-of-area placements. It should require all local authorities to report to the Department quarterly on instances of out-of-area placements as part of their H-CLIC data report, including the distance of placements, why out-of-area placements were used, and the type of accommodation used for households placed out-of-area. The Department should consider ways of making H-CLIC data more publicly accessible, such as through an 45 online homelessness data dashboard, to support local authorities to better understand homelessness pressures in their area, and to improve public awareness. (Recommendation, Paragraph 61)
Government response summary AI-generated
The government highlighted the potential of data linking and stated it is working across departments on programs like ECHILD and BOLD, exploring how these platforms could offer short-term solutions for linking temporary accommodation and pupil data, but did not commit to specific H-CLIC reporting or a public dashboard.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government · verbatim extract
Acknowledged
22. Local authorities are already required to report to the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) on instances of out of area placements as part of their quarterly Homelessness Case Level Information Collection (H-CLIC) return. 23. We are considering different presentations of out of area placements data in order for it to be more helpful and publicly accessible, as well as working with local authorities and MHCLG’s expert homelessness advisors closely to ensure data quality and reporting practices improve. 24. We aim to continually improve all our published products, including improving accessibility. We currently produce a performance dashboard quarterly, as well as a flows dashboard and a support needs dashboard annually.
Read the full response on Parliament ↗